Peeved.

Not a great day yesterday; I had problems with everything I touched.

Anyway, some pictures:

Clutch cable fitted.  I need to decide whether or not to replace the crank position sensor - or just solder the wires up.

Gear-change rod - waiting on fittings/

Front ARB taking shape.

TC

Looks like a monorail...

It's been slow progress over the last couple of weeks, not least because Kate and I went up to Lincolnshire last weekend to watch the RGB racing at Cadwell.  We got there on the Saturday just in time for racing to be abandoned for the day due to the torrential rain and standing water on-track.  Duncan Horlor had already bumped both ends in his Spire while poor Martyn Turner was in hospital with a back injury following an accident in his MNR.  After a few greetings, I was happy to head for our B&B and a curry.

The next morning things were looking slightly brighter and we headed back to the circuit just as a patch of blue sky appeared.  We watched some excellent racing from various places on the circuit's edge; it's an outstanding circuit for the spectator.  The undoubted highlight was the RGB Class F race where Austen, Paul, Colin and Steve all led at one stage or another.  The top-four were nose-to-tail and side-by-side for at least half of the duration before Paul broke clear.  Paul also got the fastest lap which drew him level with 3rd placed Austen in terms of Championship Points.  Both drivers had won 5-times throughout the year so it took Austen's greater number of second placed to split the pair.  As Austen and his Dad, Ken, explained to me, it was the culmination of 5 years' work.  

Earlier in the day I'd spent an invaluable 20 minutes chatting to Paul and Tony Gaunt about Paul's Phoenix - his is the only current car running the same 4C8 R1 as is in my car.  The good news was that I seemed to be doing most things right in terms of the installation.  Ironically, the exception was the clutch cable where I was doing the same as Paul but, in light of issues this year (which I assume arguably must have cost him the Championship) they are changing things over the winter so that the cable runs to the engine as it does on the bike - this means a long cable and Paul also suggested that they'd move to a lighter gauge cable.  With this in mind, this became one of my jobs to start yesterday.  

The cable needs to turn through 270 degrees so it needs to be long and the bends need to be as gradual as possible.  I've also go to raise the cable above the gear-change fulcrum to avoid disastrous consequences.

The cables are spaced-off the chassis using my preferred method of hose and cable-ties.  It's light, tidy enough and does mean that things can flex a little if needed.

At the other end, an 8mm cable adjuster will terminate the outer cable.  I need to get the pedals powdercoated before I can finish it off and check that it works - I have high hopes however.

Other jobs completed yesterday include relieving the rear dampers where they were just touching their brackets and finishing off the main battery cables.

The bumble-bee finish (made using yellow heat-shrink) is there to show the marshal where to cut the cable to kill the power.  Let's hope that its never needed.

What's next?  Finishing the clutch cable, taking the propshaft back for a second time for mods, getting the oil-take off modified, cleaning the TBs, replacing a spring on the reverse motor, getting a sub-lever made for the handbrake, fitting the front calipers and pads and much, much more.

Heritage

Assuming that someone has followed the build since I bought the Gemini chassis, you may remember that I pointed to to the attractiveness of the Falcon Mk2 amongst the reasons for building the Gemini.  Well, there's one for sale at present and it looks lovely to my eye.

As pretty as it is, umm... I think I'll stick with my chassis.

That is all.

Tunnel Channel

The focus of yesterday's activity was the transmission tunnel.  The first thing that I wanted to do was to run the 7-core cable that will carry power to all of the rear lights and the fuel-lift pump.

This runs along the bottom of the tunnel then rises-up to meet the connecting cables from the fuse box and switch panel.  You can also see that the prop-shaft is in situ.  This has been a debacle.  I collected the shaft on Friday having had it shortened from the length that it was originally made to - still not sure if this was my fault or the manufacturers.  Anyway, it looks okay for length now but the 3" dia rear section is too close to the tunnel on the driver's side.  I may end-up with yet another version - I'm trying to canvass opinions on how big the tube needs to be.  It's very frustrating.

A bit more of the prop and the front-to back cables can be seen here.  I've also started to tidy-up the battery cables but need some large heat-shrink to finish the job.  I also spent a little bit of time painting the water pipe that had been welded-up during the week:

Finally, I collected the side-impact protection framework that Dave from Track Developments has put together for me.  This is now a 'Blue Book' requirement but it's left open to interpretation.  Mine has been designed to not be too rigid - it's a crumple-zone for want of a better word.

The camera angle makes it look a bit odd - it's not as bizarre as it looks.  I'll get this powdercoated at the same time as the roll cage.

This week I shall mostly be deciding what to do with the propshaft - Kate and I are planning to go to Cadwell Park on the weekend to watch the last races of the season.  Hopefully folk won't think me too weird when I ask to see down their transmission tunnel.

TC

The Cable Guy

I had a friend of a colleague join me in the workshop this morning.  Neil Sharp is a proper auto electrician. Perhaps surprisingly he wasn't brought-in to fault find.  Not yet.  I needed to get the battery cables made-up and rather than buy them in and then find that they are all the wrong length, I'd asked Neil to do it on the car. Neil, being a pro, felt that it was a good idea to (a) fit a big fuse and; (b) use 300amp cable for the first leg, on the basis that if I ever engaged the starter and the reverse at the same time it might need it.  It looks whopping and is a nightmare to get tidy but who am I to argue?

In theory I should be able to test the bike-side of the loom now; see if the throttle bodies will cycle, the fuel pump will energise etc.  I didn't do it yesterday as I had to knock-off early to do some other stuff and then get to dinner with the in-laws.

Just to re-state the point, we are some p-clips and conduit short of a tidy job.

Honest.

Yawnabore R1

If there was ever a signal that I've spent too much time building this car, or more specifically too much time thinking about it, here it is:

On the bottom here is the water-in pipe which fits into the bottom of the engine on a 2007/8 R1.  On the top is the same part for a 2004-6 R1.  While the bottom-end on the two models is, in material-terms, the same Yamaha have obviously improved the packaging of the motors.  Unfortunately, for someone sticking these engines into a front-engined car, it's a pain in the arse as the water flows from the front at near-floor level rather than from up-on-high.  After harassing Austen Greenway for months, he finally sent me one of his spares and I fitted this today.  The water system is now pretty much as far as I can take it.  The aluminium fabricator wunderkind needs to do the rest. 

In other boring water-pipe news. I took a hacksaw and flap-wheel to one of the other water pipes today. I've removed the leg that took water to the oil-water cooler, since I don't have one any more.  I didn't want to have a dead-leg; if the water pump is a bit marginal, I want to make flow as straightforward as possible.

I need to get the hole welded-up now.

Dave has done an amazing job with the carbon airbox - it wasn't quite wide enough for the throttle body trumpets and was yet too wide for the throttle servo motors.  A couple of small moulds and a bit of cutting'n'bonding later and its a bonza job - if you need something similar, speak to Track Developments.

I'm not sure what it's cost me yet bit it has to be worth it.  There's a bit of a debate about inlet trumpets on the RGB forum at present.  I will be furious if mine aren't permitted next year but I can't believe it will happen.

Something which hasn't gone my way is the the oil system; having tried to marry the fittings on my oil cooler with those of my take-off plate I gave up and bought the same cooler with smaller fittings to suit the rest of the system.  I could only find one single unit that would do.  It arrived.

And is going back, leaving me with a problem.

TC

Olibobs

The lack of activity has been due to two much-needed weeks island-hopping n Greece.

Car-building recommenced yesterday with a couple of minor-looking areas receiving attention..  Firstly the bus bar for the accumulated earths from the bike loom was finished-off.

Then I set about finding a place for the EXUP and airbox motors to live.  Neither are actually being used in the installation but at least the EXUP needs to be kept.  I've received conflicting information about the trumpet servo so it's staying just-in case. 

The bracket is a piece of aluminium angle manipulated to suit.

TC